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Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
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Cost cutting and restructuring has allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses for the second quarter, and they are forecasting a profit before the end of the year.
A. has allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses for the second quarter, and they are forecasting
B. has allowed for the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses in the second quarter and to forecast
C. have allowed that the manufacturing company can lower the projected losses for the second quarter, and to forecast
D. have allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected second-quarter losses and to forecast
E. have allowed for the manufacturing company to lower the projected losses in the second quarter, as well as forecasting
Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Grammatical Construction + Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy• The conjunction "and" joins singular nouns to form a plural noun phrase.
• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" and "as well as" in this case) must be parallel.
A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun phrase "Cost cutting and restructuring" with the singular verb "has allowed"; please remember, the conjunction "and" joins singular nouns to form a plural noun phrase.
B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun phrase "Cost cutting and restructuring" with the singular verb "has allowed"; please remember, the conjunction "and" joins singular nouns to form a plural noun phrase.
C: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "that the manufacturing company can lower the projected losses for the second quarter" and "to forecast a profit before the end of the year"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) must be parallel. Further, Option C uses the needlessly wordy and indirect phrase "that the manufacturing company can lower", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.
D: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun phrase "Cost cutting and restructuring" with the plural verb "have allowed". Further, Option D maintains parallelism between "to lower its projected second-quarter losses" and "to forecast a profit before the end of the year". Additionally, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.
E: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "to lower the projected losses in the second quarter" and "forecasting a profit before the end of the year"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("as well as" in this case) must be parallel.
Hence, D is the best answer choice.To understand the concept of "And" versus Other Conjunctions on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team